Cornell announces specialized one year MBA for engineers

The programme that Cornell is expected to launch next year, was crafted after conversations with tech startups and larger companies such as LinkedIn about what skills are difficult to find in employees. The curriculum for the course will be diferent from the reguler One year and Two year MBA courses offered at the institute and will have a mix of courses on software development, leadership, and persuasion.

Here’s how the Cornell program will work, per the Wall Street Journal:

Unlike a traditional M.B.A., where courses last a semester, faculty will teach subjects such as design thinking and digital marketing in short bursts. Those will be followed by hands-on work exploring a startup project or pitching in on a company-sponsored assignment. Business students will work alongside engineering and computer-science students to prepare them for the group dynamic of life in technology.

Daniel Huttenlocher, the school’s dean and vice provost of what’s being called Tech Campus told the Journal the program is part of an evolution of b-school curricula. He says, “If technology really is permeating everything that we do in this information economy, business-school curricula will need to change over time. We’re just trying to get way out ahead of it,” he says.

While many MBAs pursue a path of entrepreneurship, many employers who hitherto haven’t been interested in hiring them might just warm up if they bring the right tech skills to the table. The Journal reports:

Employers such as Next Jump Inc., a New York-based online rewards company with about 200 employees, will be watching Cornell closely. Chief Executive and founder Charlie Kim says he swore off hiring business students since a batch of M.B.A. hires appeared more focused on spreadsheets and strategy than action. He says he expects the Cornell students to be “thinkers and doers.”

Some other schools expressed skepticism on Cornell’s specialized MBA:

“We’re very happy that the world is finally coming around to what we’ve always been doing,” says Michael Trick, senior associate dean at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. He contends that its existing M.B.A. has already successfully married technology and business skills.

Johnson says it has had 40 to 50 inquiries a week since it announced the program in July. It has accepted more than 20 students so far and will continue to fill out the 40-person class as more applications roll in.

Reaction on Twitter to Cornell’s announcement was largely positive:

Read the complete Wall Street Journal report here